Striking bag and support



April 1956 E. A. ROBINSON 2,740,630

STRIKING BAG AND SUPPORT Filed y 23. 1950 4' 1? fink/1.5010

United States Patent STRIKING BAG AND SUPPORT Eli A. Robinson, Amsterdam, N. Y. Application May 23, 1950, Serial No. 163,734

3 Chime. (Cl. 272-47) The invention relates to a striking bag combination such as y besuspended. from or mounted upon a backboard or may be attached to a standard, usually flexible, projecting upwardly from the floor or a floor platform. The striking bag may of course be mounted in any position or way desired, the ones enumerated being the common ways of suspending or mounting a striking bag. The invention also relates to the casing and its mounting in combination .as well as to the mounting plug as articles of manufacture.

It is an object of the invention to construct a striking bag in which the neck of the casing is integral or fixedly sewn together with an inward taper and a plug is inserted and retained therein by the taper, when an inflatable bladder is inflated within the casing. The casing has an opening opposite from the neck through which the plug is inserted into the neck of the casing.

Another object of the invention is to construct a striking bag as above in which the projecting end of the plug is flexible so that it provides the flexible connection between the supporting structure and the striking bag.

Another object of the invention is to construct a striking bag which may utilize a spherical bladder therein.

Another object is to provide a simple mounting combination of striking bag, backboard and mounting therebetween.

Another object is to construct a striking bag in which the end of the plug is also used directly to secure the striking bag to the supporting structure.

Another object is to construct a striking bag in which the rebound from a backboard is uniform and assisted by the bag mounting.

Other objects of the invention will be more apparent from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawing illustrating a preferred embodiment thereof in which:

Figure l is a section through the striking bag casing suspended from a backing board shown in perspective and partially in section; and

Figure 2 is a plan view of a clip for securing the bag to the backing board.

The bag includes a casing having a neck 11 with an inward taper thereto which terminates in an opening 12. The taper is inwardly directed, that is, the small dimension of the taper is at the opening 12. The casing is made of leather, fabric, imitation leather and the like cut into sections which are sewn together. Preferably the bag is formed from six shaped sections sewn together to form a general pear shape of casing. The casing 10 at the neck is integrally, fixedly or permanently sewn together. Striking bags as heretofore made used a slit throat or neck so that the same may be opened out to insert a bladder in the casing and then the slit was closed by lacing together the edges of the slit. The construction herein dispenses with a neck which must be opened up in order to insert a bladder and requiring lacing and eyelets at the slit in the neck of the casing. Preferably the fabric or material at the neck is doubled back as at 13 to give increased rigidity and support at the taper. The casing also has an opening 14 at the opposite end thereof from the neck, the purpose of which will be discussed more fully hereinafter.

The neck of the casing receives a plug 17 having a tapering body of such size that it is retained in the neck. The plug projects beyond the end of the casing neck and carries any suitable means for securing the plug to supporting or suspending structure. When the striking bag is to be used with or secured to a backboard, the projecting end of the plug is flexible so that the plug itself serves as the flexible connection between the striki g bag and the backboard. By making the entire plug of rubber the necessary reduced dimension of the plug at the smaller end of the taper, which is the projecting end, provides the flexibility for a striking bag suspended from a backboard.

The means for securing the projecting end of the plug to a supporting structure which may be a backboard may take various forms; that particularly shown includes a groove 18 adjacent the end of the plug which groove receives a securing clip 19. The clip has a hole 20 therein and a slot 21 extending from the hole so that the clip may be inserted laterally into the groove after the end of the plug has been projected through a hole 24 in the backboard 25 and thereby secure the plug thereto. The reduced diameter at the groove also provides flexibility in the plug when the bag is struck. The backboard may be suspended from a ceiling or other structure and constitutes the rebound board for a so-called punching bag. It will be observed therefore that the rebound is partly that of the bag from the backboard and partly the flexibility in the plug. Also since the suspension is uniform all around the plug the rebound is uniform. Some rope suspensions use a loop and a rope passing through the loop which double rope suspension is nonuniform and tends to influence the rebound in an irregular manner.

The opening 14 at the other end of the casing oppositely located from the neck 11, is large enough to pass the plug 17 therethrough into the casing and the neck opening is too small to pass the plug therethrough. The tapered plug, therefore, is inserted through the opening 14 and projected into and held or retained in the tapered neck.

An inflatable bladder 28 is then inserted through the opening 14, which bladder carries a valve 29 of any suitable kind, which bladder can be inflated from the opening 14. Inflation of the bladder expands the same into the neck and against the large end of the plug so that the latter is retained in position in the neck by the pressure in the bladder. Since the bladder does not project all the way into the neck the bladder may be a common spherically inflating bladder which has suiiicient flexibility so that it projects up into the neck when inflated. Of course a pear-shaped bladder may be used should that be desired. Such spherically inflating bladders are more easily manufactured than the pear-shaped heretofore used and in addition a special bladder need not be stocked but the common bladder used with basket balls and other balls may be used With the Striking ball. Such spherically inflating bladders may be formed by sealing or vulcanizing together two flat circular discs of rubber, synthetic rubber and the like or may be molded into spherical shape.

The opening 14 is large enough to pass the plug as discussed hereinoefore and is small enough so that the bladder will not blow out of the casing when inflated. A reinforcing or protecting washer 30 may be used, if desired, to partially close the opening 14. This washer is inserted over the valve on the bladder and inserted through the opening 14 so that it spreads out when the bladder is inflated to support the bladder and close the opening. The casing at the opening 14 may be reinforced by doubling over the material 31 although this is not necessary.

The plug 17 may be of any cross sectional shape. That actually used however is round. With a casing formed by sewing six sections together, there may be some advantage if the cross sectional shape of the plug is hexagonal. For purposes of illustration, the plug actually used has a diameter at the large end of one and a half inches, a diameter of five-eighths of an inch just below the groove, and the tapered portion is about one and three quarters inches long. It is evident that the dimensions may vary considerably from those used and enumerated.

This invention is presented to fill a need for improvements in a striking bag. It is understood that various modifications in structure, as well as changes in mode of operation, assembly, and manner of use, may and often do occur to those skilled in the art, especially after benefitting from the teachings of an invention. Hence, it will be understood that this disclosure is illustrative of preferred means of embodying the invention in useful form by explaining the construction, operation and advantages thereof.

What is claimed is:

l. A supporting structure for a swinging striking bag comprising supporting means having a hole therein and a surface around the hole approximately the swing of the bag, a plug having a taper body to receive the striking bag, the smaller end of the taper body passing into the hole in the supporting means and being flexible, a groove in the smaller end of the taper body which passes through the hole in the supporting means, and a flat retaining clip received in the groove.

2. A supporting structure as in claim 1 including a backboard forming the supporting structure and the hole is centrally thereof, and the plug is of flexible rubber enabling bending at the smaller end of the taper.

3. A suspended inflatable casing and supporting structure combination comprising supporting means having a hole therein, a casing having a taper neck terminating in an opening through the casing, the taper neck being fixedly secured together, the taper of the neck being smaller at the opening, a taper plug of flexible rubber received in the taper neck being retained therein by the taper and projecting beyond the casing, the projecting end of the plug passing through the hole in the supporting structure, means carried by that part of the projecting end of the plug which passes through the hole in the supporting means to secure the plug thereto, the securing means carried by the plug including a groove in the smaller end of the taper plug which passes through the hole in the backboard, and a clip wider than the plug end and the hole received in the groove to retain the plug on the supporting structure.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 600,777 Frazier Mar. 15, 1898 698,395 Dudley Apr. 22, 1902 782,332 Goldsmith Feb. 14, 1905 818,604 Bierd Apr. 24, 1906 1,119,635 Reach Dec. 1, 1914 1,575,329 Golomb Mar. 2, 1926 1,814,055 Napier July 14, 1931 1,911,065 Davis May 23, 1933 2,150,028 Dobson Mar. 7, 1939 2,186,403 Bullis Jan 9, 1940 2,323,624 Schall July 6, 1943 2,549,197 Hayes Apr. 17, 1951 2,634,069 Drake Apr. 7, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 7,512 Great Britain 1912 

